The Obama administration is gloating over the recent conviction of Jeffrey Sterling. But some serious doubts persist over whether Sterling actually did anything illegal. The agreed that there was no evidence in court that he had leaked anything. But he was still convicted under the draconian Espionage Act of 1917

The Espionage Act, designed to catch and convict enemy agents during wartime, gives the prosecution considerable leeway in terms of how it defines and conducts its case. Prosecutors can cite national security as an excuse to limit what would be considered normal constitutional protections such as the right to confront one’s accuser. They can also restrict access to certain types of information on national security grounds and order investigations within the government definition of what constitutes probable cause, to include someone’s searching the internet for information that might be regarded as “suspicious.”Prosecutors can also divide their case into separate counts to ensure success even if there is a failure to convict on some of the charges. Even though Sterling was accused of only one leak the specific counts against him included seven separate elements linked to the alleged crime. Mimicking the curious language employed by the Act itself, two of the charges include causing journalist James Risen to write a 2003 article, as well as the account of Merlin contained in his bookState of War.Sterling, who may or may not have revealed details of the secret government program, has been hailed as a whistleblower by defenders responding critically to the high level of government secrecy prevailing during the past 14 years. The government prosecutors for their part claimed that Sterling had revealed details of Operation Merlin to Risen, who in turn described the program both in detail and in extremely negative terms in State of War, which came out in 2006.Sterling, who had gone through established whistleblower channels in his attempt to expose the failings of Merlin by approaching the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2003, insisted that he was not the source for Risen. His defense team suggested instead that someone on the congressional staff could just as easily have leaked the information, an alternative that was not seriously considered by the government attorneys.Once the trial started, the prosecutors focused on discrediting Sterling as a government employee, citing an alleged poor work record and history of disgruntlement that led to a claim of racial discrimination, while producing a series of witnesses who were allowed to testify from behind screens and using only their first names so they could not be identified.

Merlin involved giving defective plans for a nuclear weapon to Iran by way of a Russian scientist who was paid more than $400,000 to serve as the principal agent for the transfer. Risen’s view, expressed in his book, was that Merlin was ill-conceived, mismanaged, and disastrous. It was “hopelessly botched, and possibly backfiring by giving the Iranians blueprints that could be useful to them if they sorted out the good information from the errors.” He called it an operation “conducted in the darkest corner of the American national security establishment.”The government prosecutors made no effort to prove that Sterling ever actually spoke to Risen. Jeffrey Sterling could not testify in the trial on his own behalf.

Only witnesses who praised Merlin were allowed to be called. Jeffrey Sterling will be sentenced in federal court in Alexandria on April 24th and is facing up to 80 years in prison.Donate to the Sterling Family Fund, set up to help the now impoverished Sterling. http://www.gofundme.com/lg8xxs